As women are becoming increasingly dominant in academia and the philosophically oriented professions, more and more are beginning to take on authority in matters of spirituality. It is not only in the more liberal Protestant churches and Jewish temples in America that we see this, but in the Catholic Church as well. There are even hints that women are beginning to step up and preach Islam. It appears that only Orthodox Judaism has held a very strict gender line; although I cannot say for sure that this is the case, it certainly seems to have maintained tradition to a greater extent than most other religions. As far as Hinduism and Buddhism are concerned, they are fairly inconsequential in America — at least for now.
Having been raised Catholic during a time of great change in the Church – the 1970s-80s – I never quite understood how consequential the changes the Church had gone through following the Vatican II Council were until I was an adult and read the history. I studied Latin in school, but heard precious little in church, and the role of the priest did not seem significantly different from the women who read from the lectern during most services. I later learned that my particular church had become a haven for lesbians, and was forced to curtail its activities following then Cardinal Ratzinger’s evaluation of the Seattle Archdiocese, which was sparked by some strange politics and practices in the early 1980s, including political support for Communist insurgencies in Latin America, gay activism and the widely ignored – and widespread – indulgence in pederasty.
These practices have changed, and the Church has taken on a more traditional demeanor, but the damage has already been done, and it seems that more and more men are fleeing religion, viewing it as an apparently hostile and inscrutable institution (this has some parallels with the male flight from higher education). So what we are seeing today is women defining Christianity from every part of the spectrum. We have women like Katherine Jefferts-Schori heading up the Episcopalian Church in the US and taking it down the path of outright, flaming heresy, and then we have a number of more conservative Christian women writing their own opinions about their particular church, coming close to preaching in their own right. Many conservative Christians celebrate the appearance of conservative female Christian writers, but they seem to forget that this upsets the entire notion of Christianity, which is that the Church shall be led, first and foremost, by men. There is really no argument about this in scripture.
What this says to me is that the decline of Christianity is by no means over. In fact, I would argue that even conservative women, if they take on authority in their particular religion, will only hasten the process. The truth is that it is demoralizing for men to have to listen to a female know-it-all preach to them about the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and most young men will in all likelihood reject religion entirely, as they see it as offering no escape from the submissive role they must assume in all relationships with women in the secular world. Who could imagine that a shrill priestess could compel young men to get married, when they have been chafing under female authority from the time they first learned to walk on their own two feet?
The emergence in the mainstream of American women assuming authority in matters of religion is a clear indication of the impending collapse of the social norms that have sustained our society for centuries. It’s anyone’s guess what will replace them, but a growing number of people are suggesting Islam will ultimately prevail over a weakened, spiritually emasculated West, just as Christianity vanquished the tired paganism of the Roman Empire.
17 responses so far ↓
1 Espio // Jul 17, 2009 at 11:48 pm
The good thing about having female church leaders, atleast more men will see the ruse and leave. I had a girlfriend that took me to a church that her and her other college friends went to, with a macho-male pastor who was an X-college football player (you could tell all the women were in love with the pastor). I didn’t realize until after my gf asked me to watch this pastor’s lecture on marriage, that this pastor and church was completely feminized. This pastor, even though he had a macho-male football player appearance, had a list of responsibilities that males had to fulfill in a marriage, and not once in the whole hour long lecture did he say any responsibilities for the female. He said such female worshiping things like “Ladies it’s your choice if you want to have a kid or not, so you need to choose a man who is strong enough to be able to support you if you want to stay at home. If he’s not strong enough to do that then dump him! Even if you don’t want a kid right now, you might change your mind later.” I couldn’t believe what I heard!
2 Welmer // Jul 18, 2009 at 1:00 pm
What’s with all these jock preachers? I have to say that it’s starting to annoy me, and I seriously doubt they have a good philosophical grasp of scripture.
What you’re seeing here is macho American Protestantism as practiced under the tacky reign of American pop culture. Minister as quarterback, his flock as cheerleaders (women) and spectators (men).
3 Espio // Jul 18, 2009 at 4:06 pm
No they don’t have a good grasp of scripture, and every lesson they have is littered with sports analogies. And the worst is how they view athletes as being above all the rest in terms of Christian service, as if a Christian athlete is somehow doing more for their god than someone who focuses on other pursuits like their school and their career. As if their god is so petty, he would care about the outcome of a stupid football game.
4 Welmer // Jul 18, 2009 at 4:45 pm
Well, on the bright side, these kinds of preachers would make excellent comic characters in fiction.
5 Lukobe // Jul 18, 2009 at 6:57 pm
“The truth is that it is demoralizing for men to have to listen to a female know-it-all preach to them about the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.”
I don’t really want a know-it-all of either sex preaching to me, though.
I say: those that are dissatisfied with women “taking over” “their” churches, start your own.
6 Lukobe // Jul 18, 2009 at 6:57 pm
Or convert to Orthodox Judaism!
7 Welmer // Jul 18, 2009 at 7:53 pm
I brought up the Orthodox Jews as an example of resistance to this.
As for your advice suggesting that dissatisfied men start their own churches, I think it should be the other way around. If women are not happy with Christian scripture, they should write another holy book and go preach it to the world.
If they insist on becoming authorities on Christianity, I see no problem with Christian men doing the same Orthodox Jews do and excluding them from any authority whatsoever over the Church.
If they want their own church, fine — let Jefferts-Schori preach to the masses and see how far she gets. The truth is that under her ministry the Episcopalian Church has done nothing but shrink and fracture into contentious factions. I am sure that many feminists would be happy to blame this on men, but they would be better served by condemning Christianity, because all she is doing is fighting scripture.
Perhaps she would be better served by expounding a Gaia cult, and proselytizing amongst the masses. She does have that freedom in America, and if for no other reason than an appreciation of novelty, I would welcome such an effort.
8 sestamibi // Jul 18, 2009 at 9:04 pm
Unfortunately, most secular Jews take spiritual guidance from the editorial pages of the New York Times rather than from the Torah, and there is a great deal of discomfort among them over the fact that the Orthodox will dominate a very shrunken American Jewish population in the years to come.
There are those who come to Orthodoxy from other branches, people known as “ba’al t’shuvah”. I’m not ready to do that yet, but I sure admire those who do.
9 Justin // Jul 18, 2009 at 9:29 pm
There are still a number of denominations that do not ordain women as pastors/priests, notably the two largest: Roman Catholic and Southern Baptist.
Long after our demented culture is gone, the church will remain, and biblical teachings will remain the same.
10 Lukobe // Jul 18, 2009 at 9:46 pm
Maybe it should be the other way around, but since it’s not, dissatisfied men should start their own organizations. Sometimes it’s better to splinter off than to try to fix what’s wrong with a degenerating, old institution.
11 Welmer // Jul 18, 2009 at 10:26 pm
I think, like Sestamibi and Justin suggested, it’s the faithful core that remains in any religion, and ultimately prevails.
BTW, I’d never heard of the term “ba’al t’shuvah”. Have you ever thought about that yourself, Lukobe?
12 Lukobe // Jul 18, 2009 at 11:00 pm
Stranger things have happened.
As for “faithful core,” almost everyone claims to be that faithful core…
13 novaseeker // Jul 19, 2009 at 8:56 am
Men are fleeing the churches because the churches are increasingly feminized. That’s clear as day. I think everyone who has looked at the issue realizes that this is the problem.
The trouble, though, is not just with the more feminized mainline churches. It’s also with church in general, today. Even the dean of the main Southern Baptist seminary has said many times that he blames the decline of marriage on men — something that only a man who is deeply ignorant of the cultural and legal changes that have, regardless of what the bible may say, radically swung all power in relationships and marriages toward women and away from men. Many of these guys are so steeped in chivalry that they refuse to see the real issue as to why men have backed away from the churches, and why they are backing away from marrying women.
The churches spout on and on about “servant leadership” and stuff like that, but never really address the core issue: women are not behaving like they were 50 years ago, women are not interested in submitting to their husbands as their heads (even if it’s a servant headship or whatever you want to call it), and de facto the entire culture and legal system backs women up on this 100%. No wonder after hearing a few harangues about this in church, so many men simply shrug, leave the building, and never return. The church is simply out of touch with the concerns of men, and sees relationships between men and women through a lens that does not apply to today’s environment.
Women, for their part, remain fed at church, because the message they hear (it’s men’s fault for the current problems, it’s a failure of men to lead properly, etc.) is completely consistent with the dominant cultural message of de facto feminism: anything that you don’t like, as a woman, is almost certainly the fault of men. The basis of the message in the churches is different, but the conclusion is remarkably harmonious with that of feminism, and the two reinforce each other quite well.
Again, as has been noted on this blog and elsewhere quite a bit, the conservatives (and conservative Christians too) have been the unwitting allies of the feminists for quite some time now, due to misplaced ideas about chivalry, on the one hand, and preaching that fails to take into account the de facto cultural reality “out there”, even when it pertains to christian men and women.
I don’t expect that the male flight from the churches will end anytime soon. The male leadership of these churches, as it is, is packed with guys who can’t seem to do anything other than blame men. Good work, guys — soon there’ll be NO men in the pews.
14 Justin // Jul 19, 2009 at 9:37 pm
Nova, I get the impression you have not actually been in many churches, and I know for sure, you have never been in any conservative congregation.
The Church’s job, if you will, is the preach the gospel, and those churches that do so, are doing just fine. The churches that do not preach the gospel, veering off into the cultural fads of the day like feminism, are quick to dry up and fall of the vine.
Contrary to many comments of this blog, there is a large and thriving conservative cultural and religious movement, and many conservative girls therein.
15 novaseeker // Jul 20, 2009 at 12:10 pm
I guess the Southern Baptists are not conservative any longer, then, Justin?
16 Justin // Jul 21, 2009 at 10:47 pm
You got me there, Nova, they are supposed to be.
17 It isn’t Only Christians | Welmer // Jul 27, 2009 at 3:07 pm
[...] I wrote that Christianity is bearing the brunt of a feminist assault. In that post, I also wrote that Orthodox Judaism appears to be free of this problem, but I was [...]
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